


Lockbox

by TariSilmarwen



Series: Whumptober 2020 [1]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Disabled Character, Captivity, Claustrophobia, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Episode: s03e07 Imperial Super Commandos, Ezra Bridger Needs a Hug, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Rescue, Restraints, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26805610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TariSilmarwen/pseuds/TariSilmarwen
Summary: Gar Saxon has a new Jedi-shaped trophy.
Relationships: Ezra Bridger & Kanan Jarrus
Series: Whumptober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954951
Comments: 8
Kudos: 92





	Lockbox

**Author's Note:**

> Heeeeey it's Whumptober! AKA my favorite writing event of the year, lol.
> 
> Let's hurt some darlings, shall we?
> 
> This one was inspired by a Tumblr post, speculating about the possibility of Thrawn gaining access to the Mandalorian vault that Maul was restrained in in Season 7 of Clone Wars (most prominently featured in the episode "Shattered"), and using it on Ezra.
> 
> This premise was basically catnip for me so really, it was inevitable that I wrote it in some form or another.
> 
> This AUs off of "Imperial Supercommandos", imagining a scenario where Fenn Rau doesn't come back for the kids, or comes back too late. Enjoy!
> 
> Prompts used were **No. 1 Let's Hang Out Sometime: Waking Up Restrained** , and **No. 7 I've Got You: Support**.
> 
> Warning for claustrophobia and a depiction of a panic attack.

Ezra's head pulled slowly from a murky darkness, his thoughts blurry and incoherent.

His body felt... vague and disconnected, his senses muted. He stirred with a soft inhale of cold breath.

 _Wh... a...?_ came his first groggy, unfocused thought.

His eyes pinched and then blinked open.

He stared ahead, uncomprehendingly, at what looked like a glass window, about three inches from his eyes. The edges of his vision were oddly tinged with red light.

A heaviness gradually faded from his limbs, and he became aware of several confusing, unrelated sensations. A faint hiss, like a life support cycler, in his ears. An empty numbness around his head. Cold metal touching his lips. An ache in his knees and tension in his legs from standing... which didn't make any sense, why was he standing if he'd just been asleep? And there was a throbbing in the small of his back, dull and achy, nigglingly familiar, like he'd been...

...Stunned.

A tingle of nervous energy crept up his spine.

Not sleeping, _stunned_.

His pulse beginning to prick up, he racked his memory for what had just happened before.

Images flicked through his mind. The canyon chase. Getting cornered by the Supercommandos. Saxon ordering him eliminated, closing in on Sabine. Her charging forward to meet him. Chaos. Blasters firing, the Force moving through him in powerful bursts, Sabine's jetpack flaming. A blow to the head, not enough to fell him entirely, but enough to leave him dazed.

The cold metal of a blaster barrel pressing into his back and pain shooting up his spine.

An icy dread started to move through him. Captured. Okay. Better than dead but still not good. After a moment or two of consideration Ezra opened up to the Force, trying to get more of a feel for where he was, what was around him.

...He couldn't feel it.

Panicked, Ezra strained harder, but could only sense his own body, and that just barely. He jerked, twitching, his hands catching in something. Ezra pulled at his right wrist but it was trapped in place. Cuffed. Huge blocky manacles it felt like, latched around his wrists. He tried to look down to see, but his head was immobile too, a metal plate pressing over his mouth, pressing his lips into his teeth, holding his head in place. A frantic few seconds of struggling and he felt the cold edges of the body-shaped alcove he was trapped in, the silhouette almost molded to his shape.

Ezra's wide blue eyes darted about, his breath shortening.

What was he—? What was—? Was it some kind of _coffin?_

Solid walls surrounded him, pressing close, claustrophobic. A panicky cry escaped him, muffled against the metal plate. He strained his gaze through the window, his frightened breaths puffing faint fog against its surface.

There was a larger room outside, dimly lit, plain gray walls. Some kind of cell? The door on the far end was closed, and had no window.

Ezra squirmed in the restraints again, terror and panic pinging through him, growing louder. The muzzle pressed against his mouth forced him to inhale through his nose, and his lungs were tight, hyperventilating, drawing in shorter and shorter inadequate gulps of air. The swell of sheer _panic_ was overpowering, roaring in his ears.

What was he in?! Why couldn't he feel the Force?!

 _Kanan... Kanan help me please, I can't get out! I can't_ _—I'm_ —

His thoughts were growing more and more fragmented. His hands fisted tightly, twisting, wringing in the manacles painfully. He strained and strained but the cuffs held solidly.

 _"Nnnnmghh!"_ he yelled in frustration and fear, slamming his head back against the surface behind him.

A prickly jolt passed through the walls and through his body, a warning shot. Ezra yelped, adrenaline spiking, thoughts nearly whiting out from panic. His vision cleared a moment later and he tried to collect himself before the... _thing_ he was in did it to him again.

 _This... this isn't helping me... I need to..._ came the realization, and he sucked in a large inhale of air and held it, breaking his mind and thoughts out of their terrifying spiral and forcing him to concentrate for a moment.

When he was certain he could tramp down on his fright, hold back the feelings of alarm and helplessness, he let it out again.

Some of the tingles around his head faded. Fear still curled in tight coils through his heart, but his breath was under control now, and he could think just a little more clearly.

Movement from the room outside caught his attention.

Ezra's eyes darted up, staring through the small window. The far door was sliding open, and a man in bold red and white armor was stepping through.

His fingers dug against his palms, brows narrowing over his eyes angrily, even as he felt himself trembling.

Gar Saxon.

The man looked infuriatingly smug as he crossed the room, hands clasped casually behind him.

"Enjoying your accommodations, Jedi?" he asked, his voice muted through the thick walls of Ezra's prison.

Ezra just glared back, limbs shaking, refusing to dignify that with an answer.

"You should be grateful," Saxon told him, pacing a bit in front of the device. "It took quite a lot of effort, tracking this down, pulling it from the rubble of that crashed Venetor, restoring it to its full, former glory." He sneered down his nose at Ezra through the glass. "We had to modify it of course, to fit your... smaller frame."

An indignant growl sounded in Ezra's throat and his teeth gnashed together inside his mouth.

"But I'd say it was worth it, to ensure your mystic tricks won't cause any... _complications_ during your transfer to Coruscant," Saxon continued.

Ezra stiffened at that, a shrill shard of fear piercing up through him. _Transferred to Coruscant?_ he tried to comprehend.

"If it had been up to me, I would have had you killed on Concord Dawn," Saxon said, half-grumbling as he stopped in front of Ezra, glaring evenly through the window. "But the Emperor, apparently, still has some use for you, boy." He waved a dismissive hand. "And who am I to deny His Majesty?"

The shard sharped, claws clutching at Ezra's lungs and his eyes widening to saucer plates.

Gar Saxon seemed to relish his fear, getting in close to the glass on the other side, so that they were practically eye to eye. "A pity your Mandalorian friend won't receive the same grace," he taunted.

Ezra gasped, fear reverberating through him. _No... Sabine!_

"Oh she's still alive, for now," Saxon told him, moving off again. "She'll be made an example of, along with her father, at Mandalore's capital city. _Very_ publicly," he emphasized.

He stalked back out towards the door, angling his head back over his shoulder, haughtily.

"I wouldn't expect any rescue," he said. "That coward Rau is long gone by now, and your Rebellion will have no idea where you are without him." He reached forward to press the button, sliding the door open with a soundless hiss. "Enjoy what peace you can, Jedi," he called back. "I look forward to whatever the Emperor has in store for you," he chuckled darkly, stepping out through the doorway.

Ezra watched him go, despair choking his throat.

He closed his eyes with a whimper as the door slid closed and latched shut.

-SWR-

The shuttle touched down, struts groaning underneath the floor, coming to a rest.

Kanan waited with arms crossed, listening to Fenn Rau finish the landing sequence, buttons clicking and switches flicking off.

A soft sigh from the man told Kanan he was finished. Rau got up with a slight squeak of the _Phantom II_ 's pilot chair, footsteps approaching.

Kanan's mouth hardened into a frown, and he glared sightlessly through the jaig eyes mask.

"This doesn't make up for what you did," he said, icily. "We wouldn't even be here if you hadn't abandoned Ezra and Sabine on Concord Dawn."

Another sigh, this one full of regret and guilt. "I know," Rau acknowledged without protest. There was a shuffle as he shifted his helmet from one arm to the other. "I just hope we're not too late," he said, lifting it and placing it on his head.

"For your sake," Kanan growled. "They better still be here."

"They will be," Rau assured him.

The shuttle door hissed open, ramp extending quietly. Both men debarked the ship, crouching low, creeping over the forrested terrain.

Kanan picked his way carefully, following after Rau as the man led the way to the facility. On the periphery of his senses he could pick up multiple presences, growing closer and closer. He stretched out through the Force to look for Sabine and Ezra... but he only found Sabine.

A gentle hand on his shoulder brought him to a stop, and Kanan knelt down by Rau as the man studied the way ahead. "I don't sense Ezra," he told Rau, with an accusatory tone.

A light clunk as the Mandalorian nodded. "They've probably got him under Force suppressants." A crick from the leaves below and it seemed that Rau was facing him now. "All right, it's a straight dash from here for about eighty paces, then swing a hard left through the access door," he instructed. "The prisoner levels are usually further in. I'll find Sabine and your droid, and set off charges all along the main courtyard to cover our escape."

Kanan nodded grimly. He hated it, but he would have to trust Fenn Rau from here until the end.

"Let's move," he urged, rising from the shrubbery and beginning to cross the open space.

-SWR-

He moved swiftly down the corridor, his footsteps light in the echoing halls.

 _"Kanan_ , _"_ came the scritch of comm chatter from the comlink on his belt. _"Ezra should be being held in the max security wing, first entrance fifty yards from your current position."_

Kanan counted the distance as he went, his lightsaber held out and down, ready at his side, as he ran down the passage.

He came to the end of his count and turned a corner, feeling new empty air in front of him. Reaching out with his senses, he could detect multiple agitated signatures, men scurrying this way and that, but he still couldn't feel Ezra, not even faintly.

He tramped down on the fearful sensation that sent through his heart. Ezra was here, he reassured himself.

He turned another corner and a presence blazed up on his radar, hostile and angry. An indignant shout and the sound of a blaster whipping from its hilt told Kanan he'd encountered an opponent.

His features flattened tightly, determinedly, as he sunk into the Force to guide him through the upcoming skirmish.

He closed the distance quickly, deflecting shots as he closed in.

 _"Etyc jetii!"_ the Supercommando shouted.

Kanan reached close quarters, bringing his elbow in hard into the Mandalorian's diaphragm. He stumbled back, cursing, his footsteps awkward as he doubled over.

"Where's Ezra?" Kanan demanded, standing back with his saber at the ready.

He received a profane curse in reply, and the shift of an arm raising to shoot at him.

His lightsaber flashed forth. A sharp pained cry and sparking followed by a couple dull fleshy thuds told Kanan his strike had aimed true, probably taking off a few fingers. Metal sounded against metal as he heard the Supercommando collapse to his knees, hissing in agony.

Kanan pointed his saber at the man's throat.

"Let's try that again," he growled. "Ezra Bridger. Seventeen. Force Sensitive. Dark hair and blue eyes. Ringing any bells yet?" he repeated.

Fear echoed out from the man, who gulped audibly, eyes turned up at Kanan.

"Max Cell Seven," he confessed, his voice shaking slightly, cowering under the Jedi's fury. "In the vault. It's... it's five doors down, on the right."

Kanan nodded stiffly, then jerked his head. "Get going," he snarled.

The man scurried to obey, stumbling up and running off, footsteps fading out of Kanan's hearing.

Kanan reached out a hand, feeling along the way.

 _Three... four..._ he counted.

When he reached the fifth door he paused, calling out through the Force.

There was still nothing. No response, no presence, not even a flicker of thought. Kanan bit his lip worriedly. What could be blocking his padawan so thoroughly?

He pressed the button to open the door. It slid aside with a _hiss!_ and he stepped into the room carefully.

It seemed unusually empty and quiet for a prison cell, only a soft humming audible to his ears. He took a few steps further forward, tracing the corners of the room with his Force sight, feeling out the edges.

A muffled sound came from somewhere in front of him.

Kanan stopped dead, heart in his throat, tensing.

It had sounded like a voice. Like someone trying to call out.

"Ezra?" he called.

Another garbled cry, louder, more insistent.

"Ezra!" Kanan yelled, at once terrified and relieved at the same time. He deactivated his saber and clipped it quickly to his belt, taking a few running steps forward, hand outstretched.

His palm came up against a cool surface, bumped and uneven like there was something carved across it. Kanan patted his hand up along the face of it, feeling a change in texture, smooth glass.

A whimper came from inside, wrenching at Kanan's heart.

"I'm here, Ezra. I'm here. Don't worry," he assured the boy, both hands feeling along the device now, finding the edges. "I'll—I'll get you out," he promised.

It felt like some kind of oblong box. The Force scattered, going vague across its bulk. What was it the commando had called it? The vault?

 _What is this_ _ **made**_ _of?_ Kanan wondered incredulously. He knew Ezra must be just underneath the barrier but he couldn't feel him at all.

His left hand found something on the side of the box. His fingers grabbed at it, feeling out. Buttons and depressions. A control panel maybe?

He pressed a button. Nothing. He felt out for all the raised lumps he could feel and poked each of them in turn. No change. Maybe a sequence?

There were at least four, and six more of a different shape. That was a number of combinations he didn't have time for.

Frustrated, Kanan gave a growl and stepped back, pulling his blaster from its holster and just shooting a bolt into the panel.

It sparked, popping apart, smoking as what sounded like a large stone slab chunked open. Air hissed, wafts of it escaping the cracks.

Kanan tingled with relief as he finally felt his padawan's presence flaring forth on his mind.

-SWR-

Ezra held very still as the door to his prison swung open. Solid metal clacked and he gasped as the face plate and the cuffs sprang open, loosing his body, setting him free to fall forward out of the device and into Kanan's grasping arms. Ezra clung tight to Kanan's sleeves, reassuring himself the man was real, and he wasn't still trapped in that horrible box.

The anxious alarms blaring inside him slowly faded.

"Kanan..." he breathed.

His master gripped his elbows, scanning over him with the Force. "Are you all right?"

"Better." A faint grin quirked at the boy's mouth. "Now that you found me." He raised his head, straightening, a smidge of worry entering his expression. "Where's Sabine?" he asked anxiously.

"Probably giving Rau a good tongue-lashing," he chuckled. "Or shooting Saxon in the face."

Ezra laughed shortly. "Yeah, that sounds like her," he agreed. He gulped, glancing back at the device that had been his prison. Glowing red lines beamed out from the interior, bending around the uncomfortably human-shaped pocket set into it. He shivered, pushing into Kanan, distancing himself from the awful thing. "Can... can we go home now?" he asked, haltingly. "I don't... want to stay here."

Kanan hugged him tightly in silent agreement for a moment. He was peering past Ezra's shoulder, at the strange device. "What _is_ that thing?" he asked. "I couldn't feel you."

Ezra shuddered again, pulling back slightly. "I... I think it was used to hold Jedi," he said.

He felt Kanan's swell of tranquil anger underneath the man's outward calm. "Come on," Kanan urged him, turning him towards the door with an arm still around his shoulders. "Let's get you to safety."

With awkward steps that grew more confident as they went along, the two Jedi made their escape, leaving the vault to gather dust and decay once more.

**Author's Note:**

> And then Sabine kicks Rau's ass for leaving them behind and then she kicks Saxon's ass for being a dick and there are many hugs. Lol.


End file.
